WASHINGTON — Russia freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich as well as jailed Kremlin critics in the largest prisoner exchange with the West in decades, in return for a prized assassin sought by President Vladimir Putin.
“Now, their brutal ordeal is over and they’re free,” US President Joe Biden said at a White House appearance with family members of some of the released prisoners. “The deal that made this possible was a feat of diplomacy and friendship.”
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris later met the Americans freed in the swap with Russia after their plane landed back in the U.S.
The swap, which took place on the airport tarmac in Ankara, Turkey, included two dozen people, 16 going to the West and eight being returned to Russia. Among them were other American citizens as well as Russians convicted of crimes and imprisoned in the US, Germany, Poland, Norway and Slovenia.
One of those was Vadim Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing of a Chechen separatist in a Berlin park. German authorities had long resisted including him in any exchange because of the brazen nature of his crime, but Putin had made his release a top priority.
In addition to Gershkovich, who was arrested in March of last year while on a reporting assignment in Russia and later convicted of espionage – charges he and the Journal reject – Russia also let go former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was…
